Sometimes the best way to get a fresh take on a product’s design is to take a step back and break it down into its component parts. This approach allows a thorough assessment of the potential for minimising the use of raw materials at every step.
On review, it is often found that components, such as fasteners, can be eliminated completely by adjusting the initial design - without affecting the product’s overall form or function.
Breaking a product down in this way becomes an important first step for many businesses considering how to improve their product design. And it is the approach adopted by Envirowise at its ‘product dismantling’ workshops.
Envirowise has used its expertise to help increasing numbers of businesses over the last few years, helping to cater for a rising demand for more environmentally friendly product
designs.
Another key driver has been the persistent rise in the cost of raw materials. UK manufacturers cannot continue to pass on higher costs to the customer without eventually losing market share – hence the need to seek more sustainable techniques for minimising the use of raw materials.
By identifying waste at all stages of the manufacturing process, from design and procurement through to assembly, packaging and transport, a company can often identify significant cost efficiencies as well as opportunities to innovate.
One strand of this ‘clean design’ that is rapidly gaining interest in academic and business arenas is ‘design for disassembly’, which promotes product design with its eventual separation and re-use in mind.
In particular, ‘active’ disassembly refers to the ability to rapidly disassemble complex products into their component parts through the use of heat, vibration, water or other triggers – without the need for manual separation or destruction of some parts.
Research in this area is dominated by Brunel University and has included such ideas as, the use of capped screws on a games console which could be triggered and released by exposure to hot air. This allows the product to be disassembled quickly whilst limiting damage to the component parts.
However, it also highlights the need for a new ‘disassembly’ infrastructure to accompany the development of these new technologies.
While active disassembly is not currently a viable or affordable process for the majority of businesses, ongoing research will provide valuable insight into how early design considerations can influence the way a product is broken-down and re-used at its end of life. It is also a movement that is gaining momentum now the WEEE Directive has come into force.
For example, a recent DTI funded, fact finding mission to Europe found the ‘clean’ separation and recovery of WEEE components was going to be paramount in helping to achieve the UK’s challenging recovery targets.
One business which is already putting design for disassembly into practice is electronic sensor specialist, E2v, which supplies products into niche markets within the medical and science, aerospace and defence, and commercial and industrial sectors.
E2v was aware it would have an obligation under the WEEE and RoHS directives and was keen to fully understand how the requirements of these could be applied to its products in a practical way.
The firm took advantage of an Envirowise Designtrack visit which focused on the end-of-life assessment of its range of TV amplifier devices, known as inductive output tubes (IOTs). These are complex pieces of equipment made from a variety of materials including copper, steel, ceramic, molybdenum, tungsten, platinum and tantalum.
The company currently retrieves many IOTs at their end of life, to control and minimise the environmental impact of their disposal and to recover some materials and components for recycling.
However, in the majority of returned products, some assemblies were fused together by high operating temperatures, which could reach 900°C. This resulted in destructive disassembly taking place leaving the majority of the material as mixed scrap which makes it difficult to separate out for environmentally sensitive reclamation.
The redesign, implemented by E2v after the Designtrack visit, focused on the practical application of design for disassembly. This reduced the likelihood of fusion between parts, thereby enabling material separation and recovery. The benefits included doubling of the yield of recovery per product by weight and therefore reduced pressure on landfill.
The primary aim is always to minimise the raw material and energy invested in a product, followed by cutting levels of waste and pollution, particularly hazardous substances.
Whilst the future of technologies such as active disassembly remains unclear, it will hopefully become a driver for businesses to look more closely at their front end processes. Because, in general, products that are very difficult to take apart are difficult, costly, and inefficient to put together in the first place.
Envirowise intends to keep businesses informed about the latest innovations relating to clean design, as well as continuing its programme of regional dismantling workshops. At these workshops, local businesses are invited to bring one of their own products along for exploration – and hopefully go away with a better understanding of where cost and material efficiencies can be made.
Dr Stuart Ballinger is programme delivery leader at Envirowise.